Though young (he is just 38) he has been a central player in the crisis thanks to his extensive contacts in the financial world and closeness to Mr Bernanke, who puts great store in Mr Warsh's feel for politicsandmarkets (see our recent blog post).
In short, Buchanan, along with coauthors like Gordon Tullock, Geoffrey Brennan, Richard Wagner, and others, helped develop a branch of inquiry that helps us understand politicsandmarkets by considering people as they actually are rather than as we can imagine them to be in our visions of a perfect world.
That catastrophe, coming on the heels of World War I, destroyed the faith countless numbers of people had in democratic politicsand traditional free markets.